Estonian to Greek: tahan minna needs a Greek clause rather than an Estonian-style infinitive
The person who wants something may also be the person who acts
Tahan minna expresses the speaker’s desire to go. Estonian combines the wanting verb with an infinitive here. The Estonian explanatory dictionary records many such examples, alongside a construction with et when the desired action has an explicitly stated subject. Greek should preserve who wants the event and who is expected to perform it.
The Greek Universal Dependencies description identifies να as introducing clauses that can function as verb arguments, among other uses. It also explains that the Greek form traditionally called an infinitive is restricted to certain perfect constructions. That form is therefore not a general substitute for Estonian minna after a wanting verb.
Changing the intended actor changes the subordinate construction
Compare Tahan minna with Tahan, et sa läheksid. The first concerns the speaker’s own going; the second concerns the listener’s going. A Greek rendering should not automatically repeat the first-person actor in both. The source’s subordinate subject sa is central information, not an optional expression of politeness.
Greek verb forms can identify person and number, while να itself is indeclinable. Adding the particle without selecting an appropriate following verb would not preserve the Estonian actor distinction. In a travel arrangement, that could send the writer instead of the intended visitor, changing whose ticket or accommodation the message concerns.
The difference remains when the desired action is staying rather than going. Tahan jääda and Tahan, et sa jääksid express different wishes about who remains. Translating both as a direct instruction to stay would also remove the original perspective of someone expressing a desire. Greek should retain the wanting relationship as well as the subordinate action.
A wish does not establish a completed event or a promise
Tahtsin minna describes a past desire, not necessarily a journey that took place. A later clause may explain that the speaker could not leave. Selecting a Greek perfect construction merely because it contains a form labelled infinitive would incorrectly introduce completed-event meaning into the translation.
Likewise, Ma ei taha minna denies wanting to go. It does not by itself assert that the speaker has already stayed behind or is unable to travel. The Greek sentence should keep the negation attached to the desire unless the source separately denies the journey’s possibility or occurrence.
The Estonian dictionary also records tahtma in need-related expressions, including an object requiring repair. Such a sentence is not a person’s voluntary travel wish. A translator must interpret the source meaning before deciding whether a Greek wanting construction is appropriate at all. For the personal examples here, identifying the person who wants, the person who acts and whether the desire is present, past or negative gives Greek the information needed to form an accurate clause without importing Estonian infinitive syntax.
Language references